Little Deuce Coupe

Bruce Beatlefan (January 29, 2008)

Little Deuce Coupe was released to a public that was still warming up to the Beach Boy's third album released just a month ago, Surfer Girl. For a 'new' album to be released in such a short time of preparation (the liner notes indicate that four of the tracks were completed in a single day!), it was necessary to cull together four already-released car songs "409", "Shut Down", "Little Deuce Coupe", and "Our Car Club". Two already-existing but unreleased Brian Wilson songs "Land Ahoy" and "Pamela Sue" had their lyrics changed to morph into the new car songs, "Cherry Cherry Coupe" and "Car Crazy Cutie", respectively. This may cause hard-nosed reviewers who want only fresh new product to arch their eyebrows, but does nothing to detract from the consistent excellence of this album.

This is the Beach Boy's first hot-rodding album, following three albums examining the surfing world. Brian Wilson teams up with Roger Christian, a noted writer of odes to cars (he wrote the words to Jan and Dean's "Drag City" and "Dead Man's Curve") for seven of the songs, and Mike Love co-writes four others (the twelfth is a re-write of a Bobby Troup song). The sense of good feeling, teen comaraderie, and hot roddin' fun permeate each track which, as usual, feature Brian Wilson's memorable melodies and the Beach Boys' inimitable harmonies.

Two songs which stand out are not car songs per se. Mike Love delivers a wonderfully spirited vocal in arguably the Boys' most powerful in-group song ever, "Be True To Your School" (not quite as good as the single version, but nonetheless the 1960's version of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run"). Secondly, "A Young Man is Gone" is an a-capella adaption of a Bobby Troup song which is an exquisite memorial to actor James Dean (who died in a car crash, so I suppose this may be considered a car song, in a grisly way).

The remainder of the album provide a scintillating look at Southern California car culture of the early 1960's. "Little Deuce Coupe" and "Custom Machine" worship the ideal machine, "The Ballad of Ol' Betsy" and "No-Go Showboat" provide humor, "Car Crazy Cutie" is a Dion-styled fantasy of the ideal shotgun rider, and the remaining songs were either hit singles or high-quality album cuts.

You don't have to have ever owned a car in your life to catch the joy that is packed in this album, any more than you need to be a surfer to enjoy the previous album. Little Deuce Coupe is a terrific album.